Examine Border Patrol Incident

Further Highway Protests Should Not Be Tolerated

July 3, 1999

If the allegations are true, the U.S. Border Patrol has much explaining to do about the behavior of a few agents toward six Cuban refugees.

The refugees say they were taunted and humiliated by border patrol agents, who mocked and verbally threatened them, forcing them to pose for a group photo holding a news clipping of Fidel Castro with the phrase "Viva Fidel" written across the bottom.

The allegations are particularly troublesome coming right after the U.S. Coast Guard sprayed water and pepper spray at five men and a teen-age boy as they tried to swim to shore. That episode occurred in broad daylight and in full view of TV cameras, sparking huge protests in Miami's Cuban-American community.

The alleged Border Patrol incident occurred behind closed doors as the six detainees were being interviewed and processed. Once released to relatives in Miami, the men related their tale of abuse, turning up the heat again on the still-simmering anger over Tuesday's newscasts.

Emotions also ran high among South Floridians who didn't appreciate being trapped in their cars by the protests and other immigrant groups who resent what they believe is special treatment for Cubans.

Miami Beach police were correct to exercise restraint in dealing with spontaneous demonstrations late Tuesday that disrupted traffic along two major causeways. Police actions prevented the protests from turning into a riot.

But police cannot allow organizers to attempt a replay of Tuesday's events.

Some have threatened to block traffic unless the Clinton administration stops repatriating Cubans picked up at sea. Closing highways is not an acceptable form of protest because it endangers public safety. It should not be tolerated again.

For more than three decades, the United States welcomed most Cubans as oppressed people fleeing Castro and communism. Only in recent years has this policy become more restrictive. It changed amid a 1994 flood of rafters that threatened to inundate South Florida. But the shift also became more politically acceptable after Cuba's former patron and the United States' Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union, disappeared earlier in the decade.

The United States, which once encouraged Cubans to flee to its shores, must find a more equitable way to deal with the problem.

The current policy of returning Cubans picked up at sea and accepting those who reach dry land invites the kind of disturbance that occurred this week, or worse.

The policy encourages people to take chances, because if they are lucky enough to reach shore without being intercepted, they can stay.

And the appearance of arbitrary enforcement provokes the kind of public outrage that led to this week's protests.

Congress and the White House need to make the difficult decision once and for all.

Either accept all Cubans as refugees or end their preferential treatment, which would mean a new round of negotiations with the Castro regime.

Either way, at least we would have a Cuban immigration policy that makes sense.